Mercury-Contaminated Fish--Is it Old or New Mercury?

An international consortium of scientists has undertaken a major experiment
to determine just that. The experiment is called METAALICUS
(Mercury Experiment To Assess Atmospheric
Loading In Canada and the United States),
and it takes place at the Experimental
Lakes Area (ELA) of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada,
located in northwestern Ontario.

Recent dramatic increases in the instance of mercury fish-consumption
advisories, which now occur in 42 states, demonstrate that mercury is
a serious national problem, as well as an issue of global concern. In
fact, mercury is responsible for over three quarters of all contaminated
fish-consumption advisories. An international team of researchers that
includes scientists from the USGS is trying to determine if the widespread
mercury problem is a result of current mercury emissions into the atmosphere
or if it is due to "old" mercury that is already in the environment
from 100 years of mercury emissions by a variety of industries. The answers
to these questions could help regulators determine what the response of
ecosystems will be, in terms of reduced exposure levels of mercury to
humans and wildlife, if emissions are reduced. The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy currently estimate
that emission controls for mercury would cost approximately $2 billion
a year to operate. The scientific community's current understanding of
the fate of mercury in the environment cannot guarantee or provide reasonable
assurance that significant environmental improvements would result from
reduced emissions of mercury. To address this important question, the
METAALICUS project has been given permission by the Canadian government
to add trace amounts of specific mercury isotopes to an entire watershed
to simulate "new" mercury entering the watershed. Because specific isotopes are being used, scientists can differentiate it from the mercury already in the watershed as it moves and reacts in the watershed and presumably ends up in the food chain. The research team developed new methods to detect mercury at extremely low levels for this project, which allowed the team to add mercury isotopes in amounts that would not pose a significant threat to the watershed's ecosystem.
This experiment is unique because of the opportunity to trace the cycling
of mercury on a whole-watershed scale and to observe the response of the
whole ecosystem to atmospheric deposition of mercury. The results of this
experiment will allow the research team to determine precisely how much
and how quickly recently added mercury enters food webs.

More Information

METAALICUS (Mercury Experiment To Assess Atmospheric Loading In Canada and the United States)